High Court: states may ban cross burning

The Supreme Court today upheld a Virginia ban on cross burning, a majority of justices concluding that the symbol of racial intimidation does not allot Ku Klux Klansmen or others to claim free speech protection. “The protections afforded by the First Amendment … are not absolute,” O’Connor wrote for herself and four other justices, reported the Associated Press. Clarence Thomas, the court’s only black member, dissented, but said the court was not required to rule on the First Amendment issue. O’Connor was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer. The case produced an unusual lineup of justices, with Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting on First Amendment grounds.

TCR AT A GLANCE

The award honors individuals in the media or media-related fields who have advanced national understanding on the 21st century challenges of criminal justice. It will be presented Feb 16, 2017 at a dinner at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems," says director Tom Frieden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The heroin-related death total topped the number of gun homicides by 10 cases.

The program aims to identify troubled probationers who aren’t complying with requirements that they remain drug free. It gives them the option of receiving methadone treatment while in jail. Then they are handed off to an outpatient treatment program on their release from jail. It's called a success because four of the original seven participants are still taking part.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr. was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. His attorneys asked the Supreme Court to hear the case because a judge had overridden the jury's recommendation that Smith get a life prison term. Four justices voted to delay the execution, but five votes were needed to do so.